the.com/voting
The only violence a democracy allows: murdering someone's political career with a pencil.
means The act of formally casting a choice in an election or decision, so your preference gets counted alongside everyone else's.
from From Latin 'votum' — a vow, wish, or solemn promise, itself from 'vovere,' to vow. The word entered English through the sense of a 'vote' as a formally expressed wish, originally tied to religious vows offered to the gods before it settled into the political sense of a voice in a decision.
- ancient method
- Athenians voted with pottery shards called ostraka
- secret ballot
- Australia pioneered it in 1856, hence Australian ballot
- animal version
- Honeybees vote by waggle-dancing for new hive sites
- turnout irony
- Compulsory voting countries still argue about election legitimacy